Posted on 05/17/2004 9:20:00 PM PDT by cgk
Days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist atacks, the major TV networks decided to stop airing images of the planes striking the World Trade Center towers and of the towers collapsing.
On Sept. 11, 2001 itself, a decision was made not to broadcast images of the 200 or so people forced to jump to their deaths.
These images, the networks judged, were too disturbing, the American psyche too fragile, the fear of retribution against innocent Muslim Americans and calls for revenge against the terrorists' enablers too great for us to see the visual evidence of that fateful day.
Compare this paternalism to the media's treatment of the photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. Those images have headlined every major newspaper and led every national newscast for more than a week, to say nothing of the international media.
The knowledge that even more graphic images exist has created a feeding frenzy of journalists swarming to get their hands on the latest evidence of American perfidy in Iraq.
Executives and editors who suppressed the Sept. 11, 2001 images evidently lack similar concerns about Arab psyche, the fear of retribution against Americans or calls for revenge against American interests.
Pointing out this disparity in no way mitigates the dastardly acts at Abu Ghraib. The treatment there of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of Americans was despicable. Nothing can excuse it, and every American leader from the president down has condemned it.
Moreover, we should and do expect our own society to hold its members to a higher standard of conduct and subject them to a greater criticism than bereft societies in the Middle East and Third World.
Nor is it necessarily an argument against the publication of the images seen thus far from Abu Ghraib or of more to come. As Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week in testimony before Congress, reading reports of abuse is one things; seeing photographs of it reveals its crude inhumanity and sparks outrage.
Acknowledging this disparity does, however, reveal something about the motivations of those in the media, at home and abroad, who practice this double standard. Abu Ghraib is the realization of an anti-American fantasy, the embodiment of "The Ugly American" in the postmodern age.
Its images are a montage of every perceived vice of American society and every grievance against it. Islamic fundamentalists see the emancipation of women, homosexuality and sexual decadence taken to its logical - American - end.
Arab and Third World nationalists see evidence of American imperialism.
Multiculturalists find proof that American society is no better than and no different from those that globalization and the spread of democratic liberalism threaten to supplant.
Anti-war activists revel in a digital My Lai, a final reckoning of decades-old indictments against the American military and its chain of command.
When all the images have been broadcast, when all this self-flagellation is complete, perhaps the media will finally show us the Americans tortured by flames, forced to leap 100 stories to their deaths.
Perhaps they'll give us with equal fervor images of other incomprehensible crimes that have occurred in the Middle East in the two weeks since Abu Ghraib photos emerged.
Of Tali Hatuel, an Israeli woman eight months pregnant, who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist, along with four daughters age 2 to 11.
Of Nuran Halitogullari, a 14-year-old Turkish girl strangled to death by her father and brother to salvage their family's honor after she had been raped.
Of the naked body of an American dragged through the streets of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, behind a car driven by Islamic extremists, who killed him.
Or the decapitation of American civilian Nick Berg in Iraq.
Or the 1 million African refugees from Darfur, Sudan, facing starvation, rape and murder by government troops and government-supported Arab militias.
Perhaps Abu Ghraib has set a new standard for the candor and societal introspection around the world. Perhaps the media will report unblinkingly about other, far worse atrocities.
Perhaps, but don't count on it.
The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.
ping...
bttt
How can that be? I mean, isn't Sudan the head of the UN Human Rights Commission? Surely the UN wouldn't have placed them in such a position if all this were true. </ sarcasm>
Bless you for posting this and showing the lurking media what stinking hypocrites they are, as well as just plain evil!
Bush is being destroyed because he believes in a Judeo-Christian world. The godless multi-culturalists are in control of the puppet show however.
Most people have no idea how much is at stake in the coming election. They only pay attention to the flames NBC fans.
Decapitate Islam (Mecca)
Thanks for the references.
Of Nuran Halitogullari, a 14-year-old Turkish girl strangled to death by her father and brother to salvage their family's honor after she had been raped.
Ok, just one of countless points, but how sick is THIS? The leftists DO NOT REALIZE how screwed up these people really ARE! No decent human being could murder his own child for being a victim of such brutality. MY father and brothers would have hunted the vermin down and saved the taxpayers a few bucks! Why doesn't the maindream media show how INSANE these people are? WE ARE NOT THE BAD GUYS!!!!
I read recently that the Fallujah mob notified the Arab press days before this happened, telling them this kind of attack waited for the next Americans that rolled through town.
Hubby just told me 9-11 would have happened if the press had advance notice of it. "Follow the story".
this was probably the most powerful post i have ever seen. the thought of that young israeli family and what happened has enraged me more than anything i could ever imagine. and to kill your own daughter for being raped? may this man suffer more than any ever has in the history of mans inhumanity to man. it would not take much more to convince me to use everything in our arsenal and just purge the earth of these people.
A day of reckoning is coming. On that day, a Trident submarine will turn the Arab / Muslim world into ashes and smoke. Before that day arrives, they will have cheered the death of many, many Americans. On the day after they will look at their desolate world filled with death and perhaps wonder if "God is Great".
Nick Berg, 26 of Philadelphia, PA. American contractor, Taken hostage and beheaded. Killing was videotaped and released to the world. May 8, 2004, Iraq
Stephen LaGuardia, 62, and Philip Coplen, 53, shot at Exxon plant; one dragged still alive behind a car for over an hour May 1, 2004, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Gary Weston, 52, and 2 unidentified American women, Shot by Jordanian April 18, 2004, Kosovo
1 American contractor Ambushed while providing security for food deliveries, shot, burned, mutilated and lynched March 31, 2004, Fallujah, Iraq
Jerko "Jerry" Zovko, 32 Ambushed while providing security for food deliveries, shot, burned, mutilated and lynched March 31, 2004, Fallujah, Iraq
Michael Teague, 38 Ambushed while providing security for food deliveries, shot, burned, mutilated and lynched March 31, 2004, Fallujah, Iraq
Scott Helvenston, 38 Ambushed while providing security for food deliveries, shot, burned, mutilated and lynched March 31, 2004, Fallujah, Iraq
John Martin Linde Jr., 30 Killed by remote controlled bomb October 15, 2003, Gaza Strip
John Branchizio, 36 Killed by remote controlled bomb October 15, 2003, Gaza Strip
Mark Parsons, 31 Killed by remote controlled bomb October 15, 2003, Gaza Strip
Escorted by Palestinian police the three Americans listed above were with U.S. diplomats on their way to interview Palestinian students for U.S. university schlolarships. They were killed in a remote-controlled roadside bomb explosion. The Palestinian thugs then proceeded to bombard rescuers with rocks.
Goldie Taubenfeld, 43 of New Square, N.Y. Killed in bus bombing August 19, 2003 - Jerusalem
Shmuel Taubenfeld, 3 months of New Square, N.Y. Killed in bus bombing August 19, 2003 - Jerusalem
Tehilla Nathanson, 3 of Monsey, N.Y Killed in bus bombing August 19, 2003 - Jerusalem
Yitzhak Reinitz, 9 Dual Israeli-American citizen Killed in bus bombing August 19, 2003 - Jerusalem
Mordechai Reinitz, 47 Dual Israeli-American citizen Killed in bus bombing August 19, 2003 - Jerusalem
Martha Teas Meiklejohn, 47 UN Headquarters bombing August 19, 2003 - Iraq
Richard Hooper, 40 UN Headquarters bombing August 19, 2003 - Iraq
Arthur C. Helton, 53 UN Headquarters bombing August 19, 2003 - Iraq
Tzvi Goldstein, 47 of New York Shot while driving car June 20, 2003 - West Bank
Alan Beer, 47 of Cleveland, OH Bus bombing June 11, 2003 - Jerusalem
34 Killed (8 Americans) Bombs at 3 housing compounds Osama bin Laden - Al-Qaeda May 12, 2003 - Saudi Arabia
1 American Naval Contractor Shot May 1, 2003 - King Abdul Aziz Naval, Saudi Arabia
Ronald Horsch, 65, of Hunt Oil Shot and killed March 18, 2003 - Yemen
Rabbi Eli Horowitz, 52 of Chicago, IL Shot and Killed March 7, 2003 - Israel
Dina Horowitz, 50 of Florida Shot and Killed March 7, 2003 - Israel
Abigail Litle, 14 of Lebanon, NH Bus bomb (17 killed) March 5, 2003 - Haifa, Israel
William Hyde, 58 Baptist missionary from Iowa Airport bomb (19 killed) March 4, 2003 - Phillipines
Michael Rene Pouliot, 46 Contractor from San Diego, CA Ambushed at stoplight January 21, 2003 - Kuwait
William Koehn, 60 of Arlington, TX Killed at a Baptist mission hospital December 30, 2002 - Yemen
Martha Myers, 57 Physician, Montgomery, AL Killed at Baptist mission hospital December 30, 2002 - Yemen
Kathleen Gariety, 53 of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin Killed at Baptist mission hospital December 30, 2002 - Yemen
Bonnie Penner Witherall, 31 Missionary killed at hospital November 21, 2002 - Lebanon
Conrad Johnson, 35 Killed by American Islamic sniper October 22, 2002
Deborah Snodgrass, 37 Nightclub bombing (180 killed) October 15, 2002 - Bali
Steven Brooks Webster, 32 Nightclub bombing (180 killed) October 15, 2002 - Bali
Linda Franklin, 47 Killed by American Islamic sniper October 14, 2002
Kenneth H. Bridges, 53 Killed by American Islamic sniper October 11, 2002
Dean Harold Meyers, 53 Killed by American Islamic sniper October 9, 2002
Pascal Charlot, 72 Killed by American Islamic sniper October 3, 2002
Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25 of Silver Spring, MD Killed by American Islamic sniper October 3, 2002
Sarah Ramos, 34 Killed by American Islamic sniper October 3, 2002
Prem Kumar Walekar, 54 Killed by American Islamic sniper October 3, 2002
James "Sonny" Buchanan, 39 Killed by American Islamic sniper October 3, 2002
James D. Martin, 55 Killed by American Islamic sniper October 2, 2002 - Maryland
Mark W Jackson, 40 ASG bomb near base killing 4 October 2, 2002 - Phillipines
Janis Ruth Coulter, 36 Hebrew U cafeteria bombing July 30, 2002 - Jerusalem
Marla Bennet, 24 Hebrew U cafeteria bombing July 30, 2002 - Jerusalem
David Gritz, 24 Hebrew U cafeteria bombing July 30, 2002 - Jerusalem
Benjamin Blutstein, 25 Hebrew U cafeteria bombing July 30, 2002 - Jerusalem
Dina Carter, 37 Hebrew U cafeteria bombing July 30, 2002 - Jerusalem
Two Israeli's Killed on American soil at LAX Airport Egyptian immigrant July 5, 2002 - Los Angeles, CA
Gila Sara Kessler, 19 Killed in bus bombing June 19, 2002, - Jerusalem
Moshe Gottlieb, 70 Killed in bus bombing June 18, 2002 - Jerusalem
Martin Burnham, 41 Kidnapped and killed by ASG June 7, 2002 - Phillipines
Hannah Rogen, 90 Killed by bomb March 27, 2002 - Israel
22 Killed (1 American) Suicide bomber at restaurant March 27, 2003 - Israel
5 Killed (2 Americans) Grenade attack at church March 17, 2003 - Pakistan
Moran Amit, 25 Stabbed to death February 25, 2002 - Jerusalem
Rachel Thaler, 16 of Baltimore, MD Killed by bomb February 16, 2002 - Israel
Lior Thaler, 14 of Baltimore, MD Killed by bomb February 16, 2002 - Israel
Chani Friedman Teenager from New York, Killed by bomb February 16, 2002 - Israel
Keren Shatsky, 14 of Brooklyn, NY Killed by bomb February 16, 2002 - Israel
Lee Akunis, 20 Shot and Killed February 15, 2002 - West Bank.
Daniel Pearl, 38, Wall Street Journalist Kidnapped and beheaded, video released to the world. January 23, 2002 - Pakistan
Aaron Elis, 32 of Chicago, IL Shot and Killed January 18, 2002 - Israel
Avraham Boaz, 71 of New York Kidnapped and murdered. January 15, 2002 - West Bank
Over 3,000 Killed Al-Qaeda hijacked airliners flown into buildings in New York, Washington DC, Pennsylvania September 11, 2001
Shoshana Ben-Yishai, 16 Shot at bus station of Queens, NY November 4, 2001, Jerusalem
Malka Roth, 15 of New York Hamas suicide bombing in pizzeria August 9, 2001 - Jerusalem
Judith L. Greenbaum 31 of New Jersey Hamas suicide bombing in pizzeria August 9, 2001 - Jerusalem
20 Killed (1 American) ASG kidnapped/killed tourists May 27, 2001 - Phillipines
Sarah Blaustein, 53 Killed in drive-by shooting May 29, 2001 - West Bank
Samuel Berg, 28 Killed in drive-by shooting May 29, 2001 - West Bank
Kobi Mandell, 13 of Silver Spring, MD Stoned to death in a cave May 9, 2001 - Tekoa, West Bank
Rabbi Binyamin Kahane, 34 Killed in drive-by shooting December 31, 2000 - Ofra, Israel
Talia Hertzlich Kahane, 31 Killed in drive-by shooting December 31, 2000 - Ofra, Israel
Eish Kodesh Gilmor, 25 Killed by PLO October 30, 2000 - Jerusalem
USS Cole 17 Navymen Killed Al-Qaeda bomb-laden boat October 12, 2000 - Yemen
Rabbi Hillel Lieberman, 36 Kidnapped & left body Riddled with bullets in a cave October 8, 2000 - West Bank
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